Experiences during coma

[LemSat87]

Hey everyone,

So I just wanted to get everyones take on a certain experience I had. Last year I was in the hospital after my colon perforated. I had peritonitis and became septic, temp also spiked to 103.9 at it's peak. I was in an induced coma for 5 days....let me tell you I can remember just about everything I experienced during the coma. Strange events....in which I seemed to keep dying in every vision. Then when I came out of the coma, things still didn't feel right and I honestly thought I was dead, until my mother came into the room. They called for a psych evaluation to make sure I didn't totally lose my marbles.

Between the sepsis, other infections, high temp, and the abundance of medications, ICU psychosis...it basically turned my brain into mush! Problem is, I still think about those visions...and I'm going back into the hospital in less than 3 weeks for reversal...hoping those visions don't creep back up on me when I'm out again.

 

[UnXmas]

That's a lot to take in. I've had some pretty severe and strange illness experiences (hallucinations, memory-blanks) but nothing approaching what you describe. Have you come across any forums for people who've come out of comas? Maybe on a site aimed specifically at that, rather than Crohn's, you'd find more people who relate to what you've been through?

 

[pen2guin3]

Just got done reading your post and I have had a similar eerie experience. Actually reading your post gave me goose-bumps because our stories are so much alike. But first a little history that lead me up to my similar experience. Since the age of 19 (now 42) I have been battling Crohn's Disease. In total I've underwent 13 or so surgeries that were Crohn's related. After years and years of becoming ill I've developed this sixth sense of "Yup I need to go to the hospital and/or Nope I can manage". Well this particular time I knew I needed to go. My situation started off as a fever like yourself then quickly turned into a full night of throwing up. By the morning my breathing started to get labored as though someone was sitting on my chest. Went to the hospital where x-rays showed fluids in my lungs (I think at that particular time they said it was pneumonia). Within an hour of being at the hospital I went into pulmonary arrest (I swear every fricking doctor and nurse in whole damn hospital were suddenly scurrying around my bed in preparation to
intubate me....lol). I was put on a ventilator and into a drug induced coma for roughly 10 days (in the ICU). This is when I started to have the most realistic dream/nightmare (if that's what you call them..???) Anyhow I dreamt that Osama bin Laden had me tied to a chair and was torturing me for some ungodly reason. Every time I would try to escape he would shoot me in the legs and arms until I wasn't able to move at all. Now mind you - all of this was when I was in the drug induced coma but the most terrifying part happened when I came out of the coma and off the ventilator (the first day or two). It was the strangest feeling and/or experience because consciously I knew I was awake and where I was but at the same time I felt like I was in a fog. During those first 2 days I somehow convinced myself that the hospital staff in the ICU were trying to kill me. I was so terrified that on two occasions I ripped off all the tubes that were attached to me so I could escape the ICU and hospital. Both times I got out of bed and exited my room to try to find a way - out only to be escorted back by the nurses (the people I thought who were trying to kill me). Honestly that was the most terrify thing that has ever happened to me because it all seemed so damn real. Obviously I can now laugh at that experience. Later after the hallucinations stopped I found out how close I came to dying (doctors told my parents I had a 50-50 chance of dying). Somehow - someway I managed to contract septicemia that turned into septic-shock. Weird thing is that the doctors couldn't find the underlying cause for the septicemia. Although I have a feeling it was related to my Crohn's Disease.

 

[LemSat87]

yeah when I first came to after being in a coma, I felt like I was dead....the room was white and then things slowly started appearing. Things didn't feel real around me. I must have had about 5 different experiences while I was unconscious. Crazy things that the mind will do when you're sick.